I preview a few dozen image files (large JPGs, PNGs and/or Photoshop files) in the Finder by selecting the files and pressing the space bar. Then I press the 4-box button to see a grid of thumbnails and scroll through the list. After repeating this process a few times the Mac will reliably crash.

The crash looks like this:

The UI freezes momentarily

I say "Oh s##t! Not again!"

There is a brief flicker of colourful line art

Blackness

Grey screen

Box with "Your computer restarted because of a problem..." in several languages.

Console output:

Every time this happens, Console creates a .panic file and sends off a report to Apple.

Summary:

I'm able to reproduce this issue reliably. If I use Quick Look, it will cause a kernel panic. If I don't use it, no problems. My Mac is otherwise stable — no problems. I should also mention that I recently built this Mac up from scratch (i.e., wiped the drive and installed Mountain Lion). I did this because of this problem so I don't think reinstalling the OS again will help.

Hardware:

MacBook Pro Retina 15"

256 GB SSD

8 GB RAM

2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

Intel HD Graphics 4000 512 MB

OS X 10.8.2

Has anyone else experienced this problem? This seems like a problem that needs to addressed in a software update.

Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.

Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.

When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu.

Thanks for the cut and paste but, as I explained, the problem isn't resolved with a software re-install, nor are there are problems with the drive. It verifies with no problems, permissions or otherwise.

If you have more than one user account, you must be logged in as an administrator to carry out these instructions.

Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

Select the most recent panic log under System Diagnostic Reports. Post the entire contents — the text, please, not a screenshot. In the interest of privacy, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header and body of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don't post shutdownStall, spin, or hang reports.

Below are the panic reports. You may notice reference to a Thunderbolt display but the problem happens regardless of whether the monitor is attached or not so I don't think it has anything to do with that.

Kappy: No one is rejecting assistance. In the first post I described formatting the drive and re-installing Mountain Lion (not a migration) to attempt to fix this problem. I agree that this is likely not to do with the SSD.

Make a "Genius" appointment at an Apple Store to have the machine tested. You may have to leave it there for several days.

Print the first page of the panic report and bring it with you.

Back up all data on the internal drive(s) before you hand over your computer to anyone. If privacy is a concern, erase the data partition(s) with the option to write zeros* (do this only if you have at least two complete, independent backups, and you know how to restore to an empty drive from any of them.) Don’t erase the recovery partition, if present.

Yeah, the MacBook still suffers panic attacks with no peripherals connected.

One thing I'm going to try is to disable automatic graphics switching to see if that makes a difference. But, as you said, it's quite possibly a problem related the GPU which would be a shame since I'm on my second MBPR (dragged to trash for a different problem).

If no one else has seen this problem then that would suggest it's unique to my machine which would suggest it's a hardware issue since this is a clean install and the same hardware setup as thounsands of other machines. Either that or I'm the only person putting Quick Look through its paces.

If it panics in safe mode, then try creating a new user account with admin status. Log out of your account and into the new account. Do you still get the kernel panics? If so, then most likely there is a hardware problem.

Update: The machine just panicked again while I had automatic graphics switching disabled which means it's likely not to do with the shared graphics and points more to the GPU. I'll give it a try in Safe Mode to test the exact opposite. Safe Mode should disable the GPU.

Another update: I spent the last couple of hours in Safe Mode and didn't have any issues at all (apart from the extremely slow graphics since the GPU was disabled). I was using Quick Look extensively and it didn't have any issues at all. I think this suggests either a GPU problem or a problem with the software/firmware that talks to the GPU. Either way, not good, and it seems like I'll have to talk to a Genius.

I have this problem, too, only since I upgraded to 10.8.2. No other software has changed for me. I'm also running a secondary monitor via Thunderbolt. Please post your Genius solution, as I'll probably have to do the same.

I'm having the same exact problem. Brand new MacBook Pro running 10.8.2 connected to a Cinema Display via Thunderbolt. I typically use Quick Look on only one file at a time. It will be working fine for a day or so and then I'll select a PDF doc, press the space bar and, without any warning, BAM! the Mac shuts down.

Fortunately, I have a good backup system and am in the habit of saving my work regularly. Haven't lost anything mission critical yet, but my confidence in my new Mac's stability is starting to get shaken. Never had anything like this happen on my old HDD MacBook Pro.

I have this exact same issue. But on a Mid 2010 mac book pro. Yesterday i instaled an SSD and did fresh Lion install. and it happenede once again.

But then i noticed an update.

Apple released MacBook Pro SMC Firmware Update 1.7 on Tuesday to address an issue that could cause certain laptop models to unexpectedly shut down if the built-in battery has more than 1,000 charge cycles.

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